The kickoff to the biggest holiday shopping season of the year officially begins the day after US Thanksgiving, but Black Friday has unofficially started with many retailers jumping the gun and getting in on the action early. In yesterday’s Globe and Mail piece, Marina Strauss contends the Black Friday is actually morphing into Black November – and she has a good point.

With retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon announcing their deals early, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas...err, Black Friday already.  Wal-Mart has offered free shipping for most of the holiday season, and Amazon has week-long pre-Black Friday specials. And Black Friday fever is no longer just for Americans. For the first time, Amazon.com is extending Black Friday deals to its Canadian shopping sites.

Many retailers are planning to use email marketing and social media to bring more shoppers in store. According to the Shop.org eHoliday survey, conducted by BIGresearch, more than half of retailers (54.9%) will send a special email to customers about Black Friday deals and nearly four out of 10 (39.2%) will use their Facebook page to reach out to shoppers. Additionally, many retailers will utilize their website’s home page (31.4%) and Twitter (21.6%) to announce and promote Black Friday deals.

A good example of how social media is being used to promote Black Friday specials can be found on the Macy’s Facebook Fan Page. If you ‘like’ Macy’s Fan Page, you can get a special preview of its planned Black Friday specials.

 

According to the NRF (National Retail Federation) holiday sales are expected to be 2.3-per-cent higher this year to $447.1-billion (U.S.), the largest jump in three years. Online commerce can expect to rise 14.3 per cent this holiday season to $38.5 billion as more shoppers opt to stay home and shop for deals online, according to Jeffrey Grau, prinicipal analyst at eMarketer.  And judging from the picture below, it’s easy to see why it's better to shop online.

 

For those shoppers who’d rather risk a slow Internet connection versus hordes of un-caffeinated people in a predawn lineup for the latest edition of Halo, there are lots of great resources available. CrunchGear features DealVista’s Black Friday Excel Spreadsheet To The Rescue!  And of course the always popular www.bfads.net gives consumers advance notice of Black Friday ads.

How will you spend your Black Friday? Good luck and be safe out there.